Delaware Valley Opera Company Hopes to Stump Viewers Saturday Night

Looking to offset some of its operating costs, the Delaware Valley Opera Company is hosting an "Opera Jeopardy" night in Roxborough Oct. 23.

Held at Keenan's Valley View Inn, the Saturday event starts at 7 p.m., and looks to place the company in a better position financially in 2011.

"It's a game night, with a dinner, but we're running a concert with it," company president Sandra Day said, adding that the event promises to be rife with opportunities for the audience to participate in the action.

"They've been coming here for six or seven years," said eponymous Inn owner Bill Keenan. According to Keenan, the event usually draws 100 to 150 guests, "And every year it's something different."

"Opera Jeopardy" is $40 per plate with proceeds going to the opera company. Founded in 1979 and having produced 52 operas since, the group survives chiefly on grants, dues from its small coterie of members, and donations. The primary consumer of these funds, the company's flagship production, is its Summer Festival—a series of three operatic productions it runs in June, July and August of each year. Its hope for Saturday's event is that it puts them $1,000 closer to financing the festival.

"This coming year we'll be performing Don Pasquale, Don Giovanni, and The Merry Widow," said Day.

These productions can be costly though, and while the modestly budgeted opera company cuts expenses where it can—"We use a piano rather than an orchestra," Day said—it will have to allot for an expense this year it hasn't been burdened by in years past: a venue for the festival.

"We spent two years at Roxborough [High School], but it didn't work out," Day said. She added that there was no summer series last year, because they simply had no place to house one.

Day's uncertain where the festival will be held this year, and aware that the cost to rent a stage can run well into the thousands, but optimistic the community will continue to support the company.

"The venue could cost anywhere from zero to $3,000," she said, with a hint of wishful emphasis on the zero.

Those that miss the Saturday event will have another chance to support the company, as the Delaware Valley Opera Company will come back to Keenan's for a Broadway show this spring, Day said.

Visit the company's website for more information.